Raspberry Pi Plex Media Player

by Emmet

Updated Aug 24, 2023

Equipment List

Below is the list of equipment that you will need to get your Raspberry Pi powered Plex client up and running.

Optional

For this tutorial on setting up the Plex Media Player, we were using a Raspberry Pi 4 running the latest available version of Raspberry Pi OS Desktop (Bullseye).

Preparing to Compile the Plex Media Player, on the Raspberry Pi

In this section we will be preparing your Raspberry Pi to compile the Plex Media Player software.

Before you begin, you need to make sure you are running a version of the Raspberry Pi OS that features a desktop interface. We recommend that you use the version that does not come with the recommended packages.

1. Our first task is to make sure all of our packages are up to date.

We can achieve this by running the following two commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

2. Our next task is to ensure all the packages we need for the following sections exist on the operating system.

Run the following command to install all the required packages.

sudo apt install -y autoconf make automake build-essential gperf yasm gnutls-dev libv4l-dev checkinstall libtool libtool-bin libxslt1-dev libre2-9 libminizip1 libharfbuzz-dev libfreetype6-dev libfontconfig1-dev libx11-dev libcec-dev libxrandr-dev libvdpau-dev libva-dev mesa-common-dev libegl1-mesa-dev yasm libasound2-dev libpulse-dev libbluray-dev libdvdread-dev libcdio-paranoia-dev libsmbclient-dev libcdio-cdda-dev libjpeg-dev libluajit-5.1-dev libuchardet-dev zlib1g-dev libfribidi-dev git libgnutls28-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libsdl2-dev cmake python3 python3-pip python git mpv libmpv-dev

There is quite a large number of packages to install, so this process may take some time.

3. Once the installation process completes, we can utilize the Python 3 package manager called “pip” to install a newer version of Meson and Ninja than is available through the package repository.

To install the Meson and Ninja Python packages, you will need to run the command below.

sudo pip3 install meson ninja

Compiling MPV on the Raspberry Pi

One of the requirements to compile the Plex Media Player on your Raspberry Pi is to have the mpv libraries.

In this section, we will be walking you through the steps to get MPV compiled.

1. We first need to clone the MPV master branch to our Raspberry Pi by running the following command.

git clone https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv-build.git

2. Next, we need to change into the newly cloned directory. You can change in to this directory by using the command below.

cd mpv-build

3. Before we compile mpv, we will need to make some changes to its configuration options.

We can do this by adding two lines to the mpv_options file.

Run the following two commands to adjust the compilation options.

echo --enable-libmpv-shared > mpv_options
echo --disable-cplayer >> mpv_options
echo --extra-libs="-latomic" >> ffmpeg_options

The first command adds an option telling it to compile the shared MPV libraries.

The second command disables the command line interface for MPV as we don’t need that for the Plex Media Player.

4. The last thing we are required to do is to tell the build scripts to use the release versions of MPV, FFMPEG and libplacebo.

We can achieve this by running the following three commands.

./use-mpv-release
./use-ffmpeg-release
./use-libplacebo-release

5. Start the compilation process by using the following command within the terminal.

BUILDSYSTEM=waf ./rebuild -j$(nproc)

By using $(nproc) we are telling it to use as many jobs as we have processes. For the Raspberry Pi 4, this will be four active jobs.

Please note that this process can take considerable time to complete. It has to clone and compile FFMPEG, MPV and libplacebo on your Pi.

6. Once the compilation process has completed, we can now install the libraries to our Raspberry Pi’s operating system.

To achieve this, we just need to run the command below.

sudo BUILDSYSTEM=waf ./install

7. Finally, run the following command so that the operating system knows there are new libraries it needs to link to.

sudo ldconfig

Obtaining QT for the Raspberry Pi

In this section, we will be getting our last required component for the Plex client.

This component is the Qt library. This library is used to drive the graphical interface of the Plex Media Player. As we need Qt to have been compiled with the web engine library we can’t use the package available through the repository.

1. Luckily, we have provided a pre-compiled version of this package that has everything you need to compile the player.

You can download Qt to your Raspberry Pi by using one of the following wget command‘s within the terminal.

If you are using a 32-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS then run the command under step A. If you are using a 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS, follow step B.

A. Use the command below to download the 32-bit version of QT for the Pi.

wget https://files.pimylifeup.com/plexmediaplayer/qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2_armhf.deb -O qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2.deb

B. The command below will download the 64-bit release of Qt to your Pi.

wget https://files.pimylifeup.com/plexmediaplayer/qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2_arm64.deb -O qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2.deb

2. We can install the package that we just downloaded by running the following command.

As we no longer need the package after installing it, we will also be deleting it.

sudo apt install -y ./qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install
rm qt5-opengl-dev-nobrcm_5.15.2.deb

At this point, you should now have QT and mpv installed to your Raspberry Pi.

Compiling the Plex Media Player on a Raspberry Pi

With everything now set up, we can clone and compile the Plex Media Player to our Raspberry Pi.

1. Let us start by making sure we are currently in our home directory.

We can change to the home directory by running the command below.

cd ~

The tilde (~) is used as a reference to the home directory.

2. Now clone the Plex Media Player repository to your Raspberry Pi by using the command below.

git clone https://github.com/plexinc/plex-media-player

3. To compile the Plex client we need to make a build directory for it.

Create this directory and change into it by running the following two commands.

mkdir ~/plex-media-player/build
cd ~/plex-media-player/build

4. We can now use CMake to configure the source code for compilation.

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DQTROOT=/opt/Qt/5.15.2/ -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local/ ..

CMake will auto-detect features that it can enable or disable for our Raspberry Pi.

5. Now let us compile the Plex Media Player by using the following command.

make -j$(nproc)

Please note that on older Raspberry Pi’s, this process may take some time. Using a Raspberry Pi 4, this process only took us about 5 minutes.

6. Our final task is to install the freshly compiled binaries to our operating system.

We can achieve that by making use of the following command.

sudo make install

Opening the Plex Media Player

To open the Plex Media Player on your Raspberry Pi, you will need to make use of the terminal.

1. Within a terminal session on your Raspberry Pi, run the following command to open the Plex Media Player.

To avoid a potential crash that can occur, we will be disabling the Qt’s web engine sandbox by setting the “QTWEBENGINE_DISABLE_SANDBOX” environment variable to 1.

QTWEBENGINE_DISABLE_SANDBOX=1 plexmediaplayer --fullscreen --tv

This command will launch the software in full-screen mode on your device.

2. You should now be able to log in to your Plex account and gain access to your Plex library.

You should now have the Plex Media Player up and running on your Raspberry Pi.

Starting the Plex Media Player on Start Up

Now that you have the Plex Media Player installed on your Raspberry Pi, you will probably also want it to start at boot on your device.

1. Before we can get started, we need to create a directory to store our configuration file.

This directory may exist already, but it doesn’t hurt to run the following command anyway.

mkdir -p /home/$USER/.config/autostart

The current users name is stored within the “$USER” environment variable. If you are setting this up for a different user then replace “$USER” with their name.

2. To get the Plex Media Player to start at startup, we will need to create a special “.desktop” file within the folder we just created.

This file will be automatically interpreted when the operating system starts up the desktop interface.

Begin writing this file by running the following command on your Raspberry Pi.

nano /home/$USER/.config/autostart/plexmediaplayer.desktop

3. Within this file, you will need to add the following lines.

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Plex Media Player
Exec=env QTWEBENGINE_DISABLE_SANDBOX=1 plexmediaplayer --fullscreen --tv

These lines are pretty straightforward and define the application we want auto-started. Using the “exec” option, we are telling it to run the Plex Media Player.

4. Once you have added these lines into this new file, you can save and quit by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, followed by the ENTER key.

5. Our next step is to ensure that your Raspberry Pi will boot directly to start up without requiring to be logged in.

To easily modify this setting, we can use the Raspberry Pi Configuration tool. This tool is installed by default on all versions of Raspberry Pi OS.

sudo raspi-config

You can navigate this menu using the ARROW keys. When you want to select an option, you can press the ENTER key.

6. Within the config tool, change to the “System Options” menu. At the time of writing, this is the first option.

Next, you will need to select the “Boot / Auto Login” menu.

Finally, select the “Desktop Autologin” option. This option will allow your Pi to boot directly to the desktop without requiring you to login.

7. At this point, your Pi should be set to run the Plex Media Player at startup.

You can verify that this is working at startup by restarting your Raspberry Pi.

sudo reboot

Conclusion

At this point, you should now have the Plex Media Player running on your Raspberry Pi.

The Plex Media Player is a reasonably resource-intensive player but is one of the best ways of viewing Plex content on your Pi.

As we compile the official source code, it means you will have access to the latest features as they are pushed to the official repository.

If you have any issues with getting this set up on your Pi, feel free to leave a comment below.

Also, be sure to check out some of our other Raspberry Pi media projects.

83 Comments

Simon on February 26, 2022 at 6:29 am
Great guide! I’m following these instructions in late February 2022 on a new Pi 4 4GB running 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS.

Everything went well until the compile – at 98% I start to get a slew of errors! I’m not sure what impact the ld.gold errors are having, but the zillions of undefined reference messages are surely showstoppers. I cannot find a good solution anywhere — any advice?

Here’s the output — I trimmed off the hundreds of other “undefined reference” error messages:
```
[ 98%] Linking CXX executable plexmediaplayer
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: /usr/lib/qt5.12/lib/libQt5Xml.so.5.12.5: incompatible target
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: /usr/lib/qt5.12/lib/libQt5WebEngine.so.5.12.5: incompatible target
/usr/bin/ld.gold: error: /usr/lib/qt5.12/lib/libQt5Widgets.so.5.12.5: incompatible target
```
Reply
1. Emmet on February 26, 2022 at 4:38 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Simon,
  
  There is a couple of things going on here, both are related to the qt library build that we are using.
  
  First, the compiled version we are using is not compatible with changes introduced by newer releases of Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye. The last supported release for this library was Raspberry Pi Buster.
  Secondly, the library was compiled for 32-bit systems, so its incompatible with the 64-bit operating system.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
2. Simon on February 27, 2022 at 10:02 am
  
  That explains everything — thanks!
Geert van der Meulen on February 10, 2022 at 5:56 am

Hi Emmet,
Love this tutorial, but when I tried to install it I ran into the same problem as Brian K Isom on December 29.
Do you have a solution for it or do I have to go back to Buster.

Regards,

Geert

Reply
1. Emmet on February 12, 2022 at 8:59 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Geert,
  
  Sadly you will need to roll back to buster for the time being. Still haven’t found a suitable workaround.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Brian K Isom on December 29, 2021 at 2:38 am
Hello Emmet,

First I would just like to thank you for this tutorial! Love my Plex server but am looking for a better player. I have a Pi 4 and am running into this issue when I run cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DQTROOT=/usr/lib/qt5.12/ -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local/ ..
```
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 10.2.1
CMake Error at /usr/lib/qt5.12/lib/cmake/Qt5Gui/Qt5GuiConfig.cmake:27 (message):
  The imported target "Qt5::Gui" references the file

     "/opt/vc/lib/libbrcmEGL.so"
```
So when I run “make -j$(nproc)” i get “make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.”

Any help would be much appreciated!!!!

Reply
1. Emmet on December 29, 2021 at 6:38 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Brian,
  
  Thank you for reporting this issue. I am now looking into this issue.
  
  The error you are running into has to do with the QT Library that we install during the tutorial being compiled with broadcom EGL support. Broadcom EGL was replaced in the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.
  
  In the mean time using Raspberry Pi OS Buster will allow you to work around this problem.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
2. Matt on May 22, 2022 at 10:06 am
  
  Did you ever solve this problem??
3. Emmet on May 25, 2022 at 2:49 am
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Matt,
  
  I just updated the tutorial with a freshly compiled version of Qt. You should now be able to compile and run Plex Media Player on Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye (32-bit).
  
  Hopefully will be able to update the tutorial with 64-bit support in the next couple of days.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
4. cbarn on May 25, 2022 at 2:53 am
  
  Emmet, that’s great news about the Bullseye update on 32-bit and the upcoming update on 64-bit, thanks for continuing to support and improve this tutorial! I’ve been running the “original” version on Buster after our last chats and have been really happy with it, and the family is thrilled that I ditched Kodi for something that “just works” for them (and on their own devices as well).
5. Matt on May 25, 2022 at 7:04 am
  Thank you Emmet,
  
  I can’t believe you are still responding to questions here. I sent that not expecting a response.
  
  Your fix resolved my problems until I try to run this command:
  
  QTWEBENGINE_DISABLE_SANDBOX=1 plexmediaplayer --fullscreen --tv
  
  And get this response:
  
  plexmediaplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libre2.so.9: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
  
  Even when I try to run Plex from the GUI it tries to start but never actually opens. I’m not quite sure what to do to fix this. Any help would be appreciated.
6. Emmet on May 25, 2022 at 2:19 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Matt and cbarn,
  
  We are always glad to ensure that our tutorials to continue to work on newer releases, and its nice to see when people continue to find these guides useful.
  
  Now on to the problems you are having Matt. Looks like the changes came with a new package requirement that we aren’t currently installing within the guide.
  
  Can you please try installing the libre2 library to your Pi by running the command below. That should hopefully be the only one missing.
  
  sudo apt install libre2-9
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
7. Matt on May 26, 2022 at 5:58 am
  
  Emmet,
  
  The libre2-9 package helped but then I was missing libminizip.so.1 which I used this command to get:
  
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install libminizip1
  
  Now my app is up and running. Thank you again for the help and continued support. Without you I couldn’t have Plex running 4k on my new Pi.
8. Emmet on May 26, 2022 at 2:34 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Matt,
  
  Awesome, thank you for getting back to me with that missing package. I’ll now update the tutorial so they will both be installed during the process.
  
  I am glad to hear that you now have it up and running on your Raspberry Pi!
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
9. Emmet on May 28, 2022 at 1:18 am
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Matt and cbarn,
  
  Following up from my previous comments, finally finished compiling Qt for 64-bit ARM systems.
  
  So Plex Media Player should now be able to be compiled and ran on a Raspberry Pi running the 64-bit release.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
10. cbarn on May 28, 2022 at 2:03 am
  
  Thanks Emmet, I’ll try to give it a whirl this weekend!
  
  Have you noticed any significant performance differences between the 64-bit and 32-bit versions (or running on Bullseye in general)?
11. Matt on May 28, 2022 at 2:09 am
  
  Emmet,
  
  Thank you for the update. I’m going to try the 64-bit version to see if it runs better. Right now, the 32-bit version is a slideshow no matter what I try to play. Even the menu is laggy and stuttering. I’m trying to troubleshoot to verify if its the plex client settings or this version of plex.
  
  My Pi 3B+ running plex embedded works flawlessly and I would love to find (or learn how to make) an embedded version for the Pi 4. If you know anything about making an embedded version I would be very interested to discuss it.
Joe on October 5, 2021 at 5:28 am

I’ve been using Rasplex for years on 3 pi devices. Two have HifiBerry as well. Rasplex was the only option at the time that had gap less playback. It also worked very well. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been supported in years and the software march onward has taken it’s toll. I started getting errors that ‘server could not create playback queue’. A server and Plex upgrade resolved the issue for a couple of weeks but then it returned. I decided to see if there was a better option. I tried both Plex plugins on KODI. I could not get PlexBMC to work at all. The other plugin worked but you couldn’t cast to the player which is a deal breaker for me. I also tried the Plex embedded player. Could not get that to work at all either. So, luckily I found this page. It works great as a music player. It’s jerky for video. Not sure why. For anyone else trying this, make sure that you install Raspbian Buster. I initially downloaded the wrong one and had issues. Other than the video issue, I’m very pleased that I migrated to Raspbian with the Plex media player

Reply
Dercio on September 20, 2021 at 12:50 am

How to remove plex autostart on raspberry pi boot?

Reply
1. Emmet on September 21, 2021 at 11:24 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Dercio,
  
  You only need to delete the file that we created during the tutorial.
  
  rm /home/pi/.config/autostart/plexmediaplayer.desktop
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Drummond on September 2, 2021 at 6:24 pm

I followed these instructions a couple of months ago and it all appeared to work well.

The one issue I haven’t been able to figure out yet is it plays HD content with fantastic quality but blue screens after 15mins. A reboot and it does another 15mins before blue screening again.

I have wiped and reinstalled everything from scratch and it is still happening – next stop is to try a different SD card.

Reply
David on September 1, 2021 at 9:42 pm

Going to follow this guide in 2021, any big changes in the last 12 months that make this a bad idea? In addition how do people get remotes to work? does it just work with TV remote via HDMI?

Reply
1. Emmet on September 2, 2021 at 2:37 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi David,
  
  I tested this tutorial relatively recently and it all still appears to be working. Of course it still isn’t the best experience if you throw very high definition files at it.
  
  I however, have never tested this with a remote using HDMI-CEC. Please let me know how you get on if you decide to give it a try.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
JC Guevara on July 28, 2021 at 10:45 am

did do Gene Latham’s script in auto start, @ reboot is askimg me for a passwor, do enter default password (because i did not change the stock password) and is stuck there, any sugestions

Reply
1. Emmet on July 29, 2021 at 6:27 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi JC,
  
  I updated the tutorial with new steps for getting Plex Media Player to start at boot, please give them a try.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Drummond on July 11, 2021 at 10:21 pm

I installed Plex on a Raspberry Pi 4 using the above process and it all worked fine – however, the image quality isn’t great for 1080p videos. I get horizontal misalignment and some pixellation in the image especially during fast moving sequences. I also have Plex installed on some laptops and a couple of Smart TVs and I don’t have any problems playing the same files on them. I have also tried the Pi on both an HD PC screen (via HDMI) and on a project (via HDMI) and I have the same problems.
I have increased the graphics memory to 132Mb and I have pushed the clock rate of the processor and the GPU, but none of these have made any difference.
Has anyone had the same issues? Can anyone suggest a solution?

Reply
Bill G on April 18, 2021 at 2:20 pm

I got an error building ffmpeg. Looking up the error (undefined reference to `__atomic_store_8′)

I added the following option to ffmpeg_options:

echo --extra-ldflags="-latomic" >> ffmpeg_options

I hope this helps the next person with this error.

Reply
1. Scepi on April 30, 2021 at 6:26 pm
  Hi, it really helped, though I had to remove the “”s, like this:
  
  echo --extra-ldflags=-latomic >> ffmpeg_options
2. Giles on July 21, 2021 at 9:22 am
  
  Thanks! Got that one too. Note for anyone else needing to run this — the commenting system converted the double-quotes into smart quotes, so you’ll need to replace them with normal ones — or indeed, like Scepi did, just miss them out, because they’re not strictly necessary.
3. Ben T. on December 11, 2021 at 4:04 am
  
  This no longer works. You need to add execute the following command instead:
  `echo --extra-libs=-latomic >> ffmpeg_options`
4. Emmet on December 13, 2021 at 10:05 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Ben,
  
  Thank you for pointing this out. I have updated the tutorial to use the correct version of this line.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Mathias on January 24, 2021 at 8:09 am

Hi Emmet,

I don’t leave feedback often, but in this case, well thanks a lot for this crystal clear guide!! It works like a charm!

Regards
Mathias

Reply
andrew on December 28, 2020 at 11:51 am

This was really helpful! Thank you!!

Reply
William Brown on December 25, 2020 at 7:13 am

First I want to say WOW & Thank You! This article is wonderful/worked perfectly for me the first try!

By chance is there a way to have that command run on startup? I have tried a couple of ways with no luck.

Reply
1. William Brown on December 25, 2020 at 8:13 am
  
  By “that command” I mean plexmediaplayer –fullscreen –tv
2. Emmet on December 25, 2020 at 8:53 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi William,
  
  Sadly at this stage I haven’t had much luck with getting it to start at boot.
  
  If I work out a solution in the mean time I will be sure to reply to this comment with it.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
3. Gene Latham on December 27, 2020 at 3:13 am
  If you create the file /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart you can have PMP start at log in, if the pi user is set for auto login. You have to start everything you want, no just PMP. Here’s mine:
  
  @lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi @pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi @xscreensaver -no -splash plexmediaplayer --fullscreen --tv
  
  The ‘@‘ says to retry things if they fail. lxpanel puts the menu panel on the bottom of the screen, pcmanfm starts the file manager, xscreensaver starts the screen saver, and the plexmediaplayer line starts PMP.
4. Giles on July 21, 2021 at 9:33 am
  
  +1 to Gene Latham’s suggestion, but just a note — the double-dashes in that command line, before all of the options, have been replaced with m-dashes — so you’ll need to fix that if you want to use the same config.
Kerry6a on December 25, 2020 at 2:07 am

How can I remove this if completed successfully ?

Reply
1. Emmet on December 28, 2020 at 4:10 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Kerry,
  
  As this wasn’t installed as a typical package it does require extra steps to remove.
  
  I haven’t tried this myself so take the following steps with care. These steps are basically just uninstalling all the files that the final install command does.
  
  Remove the desktop desktop config file
  
  sudo rm /usr/local/share/applications/plexmediaplayer.desktop
  
  Remove its icon
  
  sudo rm /usr/local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/plexmediaplayer.svg
  
  Delete the qt web engine reosurces
  
  sudo rm /usr/local/resources/qtwebengine_devtools_resources.pak
  
  Finally remove the plex media player client resource folders
  
  sudo rm -r -f /usr/local/share/plexmediaplayer/
  
  Remove the plex media player binary
  
  sudo rm /usr/local/bin/plexmediaplayer
  
  Remove the plex media helper
  
  sudo rm /usr/local/bin/pmphelper
  
  There is also the additional packages installed that we need to remove, including mpv and qt5 but the above steps will remove the plex media player itself.
  
  Honestly, if you wanted to strip it back any further it would probably be easier to just start a fresh copy of Raspberry Pi OS.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Paul on December 23, 2020 at 2:21 pm

Aloha Emmet,
Before I start this project will it run ok on the Pi 4B 4 GB or is the 8GB recommended.

Reply
1. Emmet on December 25, 2020 at 9:05 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  It should be fine to run this on a 4GB Raspberry Pi 4. You are more likely to run in to issues with the processor of the Raspberry Pi then you are with the RAM.
  
  From my experience the Plex Media Player eats up more CPU time then it does RAM.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Michael Koch on August 19, 2020 at 7:02 am

Hi
thanks for a great guide, it works fine on my rpi 4 8gb.
Regards Michael

Reply
aniel arias on July 2, 2020 at 4:21 pm

i am getting at the very end after running “plexmediaplayer –fullscreen –tv
”
error: “Could not initialize egl display
Aborted”

Reply
1. Emmet on July 2, 2020 at 4:48 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Aniel Arias,
  
  Make sure that you run that command on your Raspberry Pi itself and not over SSH.
  
  From memory that error is caused when using it over SSH as techically there is no display attached to the SSH session.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
2. aniel arias on July 2, 2020 at 5:38 pm
  
  i just realized i used the lite version and not the desktop, my bad
Girishprasanna on June 22, 2020 at 3:14 pm

would this work on Rpi 2B?

Reply
1. Emmet on June 22, 2020 at 3:27 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi,
  
  You would be better off using RasPlex on that device. Using the official Plex Media Player will likely run you in to performance problems with the older Raspberry Pi’s.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
Anthony on June 10, 2020 at 4:30 am

after i run ./rebuild -j$(nproc) and i try to install it says “The project was not configured: run “waf configure” first!” did i do somthing wrong or am i missing a step

Reply
1. Emmet on June 11, 2020 at 4:07 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Anthony,
  
  It looks like there is some compilation errors occuring. I’ve made some adjustments to the tutorial to hopefully solve these.
  
  Please try running Step 2 under the “Preparing to Compile the Plex Media Player, on the Raspberry Pi” section again.
  
  Then try recompiling MPV again.
  
  Hopefully the issue should be solved now.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
2. Scott on June 14, 2020 at 12:52 am
  
  I am getting the same exact error. After running ./rebuild -j$(nproc) in step 4 of the “Compiling MPV on the Raspberry Pi” the next step 5 “sudo ./install” command gives the error “The project was not configured: run “waf configure”. I bet this is were the poster above is getting this error as well. Can’t comment on the next section about “Compiling the Plex Media Player on a Raspberry Pi” as I’m stuck in the first section.
3. Emmet on June 14, 2020 at 1:09 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Scott,
  
  Ok I’ve done a bit more problem solving.
  
  Try running the following two commands within the mpv-build directory.
  
  ./use-mpv-release ./use-ffmpeg-release
  
  Followed by the rebuild and install commands.
  
  I’ve updated the tutorial to use these additional steps as well.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
4. John Marriott on May 10, 2021 at 10:47 pm
  
  I am also having this issue, it used to work fine but now I just can’t install it on a new pi4…. Any ideas?
  
  Waf configure
5. Drummond on July 11, 2021 at 10:17 pm
  
  Hi, I had the same problem and then discovered that if you use the Raspbian OS Installer you get this problem, but if you follow the link at the top of this page to the Raspbian Buster download, download the image without recommended apps and write it to an SD card using Etcher, then the above problem doesn’t happen and it compiles ok.
Scott on June 9, 2020 at 7:47 am

Hey,
The whole thing worked beautifully until I got to the ./make -j$(nproc) command near the bottom. That hits me with “No such file or directory.” I have triple checked my work. just wondering what I screwed up?

Reply
1. Emmet on June 9, 2020 at 2:28 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Scott,
  
  Try running the command without ./ at the start of it.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet